Accompanied by his bluegrass trio, Keller & the Keels, Keller Williams will bring a foot-stompin’ celebration known as Thanksforgrassgiving to The National this Black Friday.
Fresh off a show at the Odgen Theater in Denver, Colorado featuring Keller Williams’ latest trio, Keller & the Keels, along with Grateful Grass (a six-piece headed by Williams that does bluegrass interpretations of Grateful Dead tunes) and Love Canon, I was able to catch up with Williams ahead of his headlining show with the Keels this Friday at the National Theater in Richmond. Keller & the Keels are currently touring behind their latest album, Speed, which just came out on November 22. We spoke to Williams about hometown roots and video shoots, among other delightful topics. Read on.
Keller I’m excited to talk about your upcoming show at the National this Friday. But first I wanted to ask you where you recorded the video for “Crater in the Backyard.”
That’s my house! It’s where I am right now actually. Just outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
You’re from Fredericksburg, right? Is that where you live now?
Yep. Born and raised! I moved away, spent about 5 years in different towns, but came back.
Nice that you’re back home.
Yeah it’s good. Three and a half days home and then three and a half days gone is a pretty normal week for me right now.
Wow. And that’s every week?
Yeah, usually. I get maybe four or five weekends off a year if I’m lucky. Comes out to about 110 shows a year, I think? But these days for me life on the road is a couple hours on a plane, a couple drinks, couple naps, and a couple movies, you know? It’s not that bad.
Right on. Talk to me about the last couple shows you had out on the road.
Well our last show was at the Ogden Theater in Denver, Colorado. That bill was Love Canon, myself and the Keels, followed by Grateful Grass. And the show before that was at the Meow Wolf in Santa Fe.
Cool. Can you tell me more about the Thanksforgrassgiving shows this weekend?
Yeah this weekend is gonna be really fun! Thanksforgrassgiving is always the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving around the local area where I’m from. Friday night will be at the National Theatre in Richmond, and then this year we are doing Saturday night at the Hamilton up in DC.
Without spoiling anything, can you tell me a little bit about the set for Friday night?
Well Lindsay Lou will be opening, and she’s really great. Super cool. Wonderful to hang out with. Love her. Then the Keels and I. We’ve done four or five gigs since this record has come out, so we are definitely focusing on a lot of this new material, as well as some of our favorite stuff from the other records. And we like to play really fast! So there won’t be any lagging, there won’t be any really slow songs.
So it’ll be a dancing night?
Oh yeah! Stompin’ 🙂
Cool. Well enjoy being home, and thanks so much for talking with me.
Absolutely man, thanks for the press!
Keller & the Keels are at the National this Friday, November 29. Doors at 7, show at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Top Photo by Taylor Crothers
